Oliver Bierhoff has taken a swipe at English football ahead of tonight’s friendly against Germany by claiming the number of foreign players in the Premier League is damaging the national team’s chances of success.

Former Germany striker Bierhoff says the multinational nature of the English top flight is making it difficult for Fabio Capello to deliver a trophy.

Capello recently complained about the dearth of home-grown players and Bierhoff, who scored 37 goals for his country and is now part of head coach Joachim Low’s staff, believes the English game should concentrate more on developing its own talent.

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Bierhoff said: 'I think the English league is the biggest in the world but the big clubs are playing a lot of foreign players. You can see English clubs are well represented in the Champions League but if you look at the statistics then at the end of the season, you see the English players played fewer games in the Champions League than the German players.

'This shows English football should also think about growing their players and give them support.'

Ballack damned the English game with faint praise

Bierhoff’s comments echo those of Germany skipper Michael Ballack, who says England have underachieved greatly in the major tournaments.

The Chelsea midfielder, who has been given permission to miss tonight’s game, claims England should believe they can reach the final of every competition they enter.

Much of the talk ahead of the fixture in Berlin has been about England’s 5-1 win over Germany in Munich in a World Cup qualifier seven years ago.

But Bierhoff pointed out that Germany have enjoyed more success against England than the other way round, though he praised the progress they have made under Capello.

He said: 'Since Fabio Capello took over as manager there has been a fresh spirit in the England team.'